Posted on 03/27/2006 10:02:54 AM PST by NormsRevenge
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) -- Al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui testified Monday that he and would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid were supposed to hijack a fifth airplane on Sept. 11, 2001, and fly it into the White House.
Moussaoui's testimony on his own behalf stunned the courtroom as he disclosed details he had never revealed before. It was in stark contrast to Moussaoui's previous statements in which he said the White House attack was to come later if the United States refused to release a radical Egyptian sheik imprisoned on earlier terrorist convictions.
Moussaoui testified Monday he lied to investigators when arrested in August 2001 because he wanted to let the attacks of Sept. 11 go forward.
"Yes, you can say that," Moussaoui said when the prosecution asked if that was why he misled them. The statement was key to the government's case that the attacks might have been averted if Moussaoui had been more cooperative following his arrest.
He told the court he knew the attacks were coming some time after August 2001 and bought a radio so he could hear them unfold.
Specifically, he said he knew the World Trade Center was going to be attacked, but asserted he was not part of the plot and didn't know the details.
Taking the stand in his own defense in his death-penalty trial, Moussaoui said he declined to become a suicide pilot in some future attack when asked by a senior al-Qaida official in 1999.
Nineteen men pulled off the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York in Washington in the worst act of terrorism ever on U.S. soil.
"I had knowledge that the Twin Towers would be hit," Moussaoui said. "I didn't know the details of this."
Asked by his lawyer why he signed his guilty plea in April as "the 20th hijacker," Moussaoui replied: "Because everybody used to refer to me as the 20th hijacker and it was a bit of fun."
Moussaoui testified calmly in his death penalty trial, but against his lawyers' wishes.
Before he took the stand, his lawyers made a last attempt to stop him from testifying, but failed. Defense attorney Gerald Zerkin argued that his client would not be a competent witness because he has contempt for the court, only recognizes Islamic law and therefore "the affirmation he undertakes would be meaningless."
Asked by Zerkin if he was supposed to be one of the men who would pilot a plane on 9/11, he said no, adding: "I'm sorry, I don't know about the number of planes but I was not the fifth (pilot) hijacker."
The 19 terrorists on Sept. 11 hijacked and crashed four airliners, killing nearly 3,000 people in the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and on the planes.
About his guilty plea, he said: "I took a pen. I signed it."
He said talked with an al-Qaida official in 1999 about why a 1993 bombing at the World Trade Center failed to bring the towers down. He said "was asked in the same period for the first time if I want to be a suicide pilot and I declined."
Yet, he said he was taking flight training for a separate attack on the White House, when he was arrested in August 2001 on immigration charges. He was vague on whether this attack was to have been after Sept. 11 or on it.
"I know it was something going on," he said in French-accented English. "We don't do single operation. We do multiple strikes."
He told the court it was "difficult to say" whether he was involved in the planning for 9/11. At some point, he said, he received training on what to do if at the controls of a hijacked plane if a fighter aircraft approached.
Just before Moussaoui took the stand, the court heard testimony that two months before the attacks that a CIA deputy chief waited in vain for permission to tell the FBI about a "very high interest" al-Qaida operative who became one of the hijackers.
The official, a senior figure in the CIA's Osama bin Laden unit, said he sought authorization on July 13, 2001, to send information to the FBI but got no response for 10 days, then asked again.
As it turned out, the information on Khalid al-Mihdhar did not reach the FBI until late August. At the time, CIA officers needed permission from a special unit before passing certain intelligence on to the FBI.
The official was identified only as John. His written testimony was read into the record.
"John's" testimony was part of the defense's case that federal authorities missed multiple opportunities to catch hijackers and perhaps thwart the 9/11 plot.
His testimony included an e-mail sent by FBI supervisor Michael Maltbie discussing Moussaoui but playing down his terrorist connections. Maltbie's e-mail said "there's no indication that (Moussaoui) had plans for any nefarious activity."
He sent that e-mail to the CIA even after receiving a lengthy memo from the FBI agent who arrested Moussaoui and suspected him of being a terrorist with plans to hijack aircraft.
Former FBI agent Erik Rigler, the first defense witness, was questioned about a Justice Department report that he said criticized the CIA for keeping intelligence about two known al-Qaida terrorist operatives in the United States from the FBI for more than a year.
Under cross-examination from the prosecution, he acknowledged the report did not link the pair specifically to a civil aviation plot. But he said the report's thrust was about their preparations for what turned out to be the 9/11 attacks, and their ability to elude federal agents.
"That's why they came here," he said. "They didn't come for Disney."
The two were among the 19 suicide hijackers on 9/11. The report said they had been placed on a watch list in Thailand in January 2000, but not on a U.S. list until August 2001.
Prosecutors argue that Moussaoui, a French citizen, thwarted a prime opportunity to track down the 9/11 hijackers and possibly unravel the plot when he was arrested in August 2001 on immigration violations and lied to the FBI about his al-Qaida membership and plans to hijack a plane.
Had Moussaoui confessed, the FBI could have pursued leads that would have led them to most of the hijackers, government witnesses have testified.
To win the death penalty, prosecutors must first prove that Moussaoui's actions - specifically, his lies - were directly responsible for at least one death on Sept. 11.
If they fail, Moussaoui would get life in prison.
Moussaoui pleaded guilty in April to conspiring with al-Qaida to hijack planes and other crimes, but he has denied any role in 9/11. He says he was training for a possible future attack on the White House.
Fry him in bacon grease!
I just saw that, Thanks, hmmmm.
He didn't say it was only the two of them. I tend to think it's bull as well, but for different reasons. He ID'd Reid, because we've already got him. He didn't ID anyone else that isn't already dead, or in custody. His accomplices, if any, are still out there.
Too good for him. We'll build a very tall tower. Put him in a little "cab" at the top, and fly a drone fully loaded with fuel into the cab.
Actually, I'd be more in favor of rebuilding the World Trade Center, then pushing him off the roof.
Which means
(a) he is a nutcase
(b) he had a couple more partners we haven't caught yet
(c) both a and b
My money is on (a). It doesn't seem like he is stable enough to have gotten too far in the planning process with partners.
Actually, I doubt a single BRITON was involved at all. Arab and Pakis living in Briton? Yes. But they aren't Britons anymore than Mohammad Atta was an American from living in Florida.
All you need to know about "lawyer ethics".
"String him up on the fence in front of the white house and leave him there till he rots...."
Nope. Handcuff him to a lightpost in Central Park, NYC. The locals will take care of the rest.
It should disqualify all Muslim witnesses, like Jews used to be disqualified as witnesses in Christian countries because of similar beliefs about oaths taken before Chrisian courts.
Hmm, wonder if this has been an issue with witnesses and suspects before?
It is an issue every time a Muslim witness demands to take an oath on the Koran.
LOL exactly what i was thinking!!!
I agree, but now would be an excellent time to bring this up again. I'm sure Weldon is doing his best, but the dead-wood media is fast asleep as usual.
I believe that the Koran allows for lying to infidels, so it may not matter.
We do the best we can here at the FR. We don't let stories die.
As far as him being a nutcase, that's technically true, but I wouldn't read to much into it. For one thing, he's a Wahhabi fanatic and potential suicide bomber who was part of the largest terrorist attack in history, which supposed to trigger an apocalyptic struggle between Islam and the West. Take that little cornicopia of mental issues, and stuff him into solitary for three years, with the knowledge that his hijacker friends all are legendary in the Arab world. Plus, when he is executed by the corrupt courts of the great Satan, he will become the most famous Islamic martyr on the planet.
That spells 'nutcase' with a triple word score.
It's not at all unusual, though. While terrorist facilitators are quite sane and rational, they very often use the most twisted or broken of individuals in their plots. Some level of emotional imbalance, immaturity, or mental defect is pretty much required to be a suicide bomber, and in Iraq we found that was most often the case. I've seen some potential sucide bombers who were intercepted prior to their 'wedding', and they're not exactly the cream of society.
That fact that Moussaoui is mentally off kilter doesn't really suggest to me that he's not telling the truth. If he didn't make the first draft, then it may have been determined he was a little too off to pass unnoticed. That doesn't make him innocent in the least.
"Great, get a rope and some pigsh*t smear him real good and hoist him up....Send pics to all arab capitals."
If we ever catch Bin Laden, I would immediately turn him over to those Romanian's out of the Hannibal Lecter movie. They have nice hogs and I'm sure they would be glad to film a small documentary.
When we catch Osama, firing squad, but not before he watches as each member dips their bullet in pig fat and he gets to see the pigskin he's going to get as a burial shroud.
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